By snoadmin
With today being the last day to register to vote, we’re making this last-ditch appeal to our community to stand up and be counted. This election will impact the rest of all of our lives. 2008 should be “The Year of the Student.”
One can stand near the volunteer voter registration tables that have popped up around the Cal State Long Beach campus during the past few weeks and literally smell apathy and complacency on the passers-by.
While there might be a few people registering to do the “dirty deed,” most students seem to walk a large circle to avoid the eager volunteers.
With the exception perhaps of the knucklehead who did the recent fly-by theft of the life-size John McCain cutout, or those hoping to flirt with the volunteers, one would think that many students don’t think this election means much.
Students who don’t seem to care about the upcoming political showdown are the ones who will hurt us all by not committing to placing check marks on ballots.
It’s difficult to actually ferret out the ones who will shirk civic responsibility in the voting booth. Walk into any class and ask, “How many in here that are eligible are registered to vote?” and practically every hand will touch the sky.
Whether students are trying to avoid embarrassment, or attempting to impress classmates and professors, actual numbers don’t lie about voter participation.
Only 14 percent of California’s eligible youth voted on Super Tuesday in February, according to the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement. That means people 18-29 years old let 86 percent of voters aged 30 and older choose the current presidential candidates and set the political tone.
By CIRCLE’s count, only 25 percent of those with more than a high school education voted in the California primary. Some might hail that a nearly 900,000 college-age statewide turnout is pretty good. If you consider that the other 75 percent would have pumped those numbers up to more than 3.5 million, an issue like higher education would be a major topic in state and national political discussions.
Education should be a priority to the candidates but it isn’t.
Therefore, let’s put the issues that dominate their conversations into a student context. These demons are not only for the current batch of college students, but for those who will fill your seats in the future; possibly even your own children.
The economy is a mess. The occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan are ongoing and our leaders seem to have no shortage of other countries they’d like to confront. Affordable health care will be non-existent. The environment is in big trouble and energy concerns are dire.
The candidates focus on these issues in their word battles, but seem to overlook the variable crucial to solving these problems — education.
None of these problems can be solved without fresh crops of educated people being infused into our national inventory. That inventory will continue a downward spiral if education isn’t made the national priority.
The college demographic that votes in two weeks won’t be the source of our national problems, but will certainly pay the price. It’s the ones who don’t vote that will determine national policy to our disadvantage.
Elections are a gamble and bringing every eligible stakeholder to the table is crucial to effecting positive change. And much like any other risk, you can’t win it unless you’re in it. If you don’t register to vote — and follow through by actually voting — you ain’t in it.
To those who are already registered to vote, thank you.
For those who haven’t registered, track down one of those registration volunteers and help declare this “The Year of the Student.” Registering is quite painless and doesn’t take more than a few minutes. We will thank you, but more importantly, you will thank yourself on Nov. 5.
